Mystery Red Sox to visit Grand Slam Café

Trot Nixon with selectman Louis Cornacchioli and Chair of the Board of Selectmen Douglas Briggs at last year’s autograph signing at the Grand Slam Café. The identity of this year’s visiting Red Sox will be kept a secret, but he is a “fan favorite,” according to chef Bob Courtemanche. In 2003, a snowstorm blew David Ortiz into Rutland.

In 2004, Trot Nixon arrived a half-hour early.

Which Red Sox star will visit the Grand Slam Café in 2005?

We won’t find out until the very day. For the third consecutive year, Cherylann Gengel, owner of the Grand Slam Café, and chef Bob Courtemanche are inviting a Red Sox player to sign autographs at the restaurant on Pommogussett Road.

But this year, they’re keeping his identity under wraps.

“We just want to put a fun spin on things,” Courtemanche said in an interview on Tuesday, confirming only that the mystery player is a member of the 2004 World Series team — and that “he is definitely a Grand Slam Café

fan favorite.”

“I can promise that no one will be disappointed,” Gengel added.

The mystery player will appear at the café on Sunday, December 4, between 1 and 3 p.m. Ticket-holders who correctly guess the player’s identity will be entered into a pool to win an autographed Trot Nixon bat, Courtemanche said.

Tickets for the event — one per family — are available at the café every night beginning at 5 p.m. Three hundred tickets will be given away, 25 a night, until they run out. Restaurant patrons get first dibs, Gengel said, but no purchase is necessary to receive a ticket.

Each family may bring one item for the mystery player to sign. “We would love for every person to bring an item, but we have to limit it to one item per family, be it a bat, a ball, a T-shirt, whatever,” Gengel said. She expects 1,200 to 1,500 fans to come to the event. No posed photographs will be arranged, but ticket-holders are welcome to snap photographs if they like.

“It’s like no other autograph signing because it’s free,” Courtemanche said. “It’s really for the community. It’s our way of thanking our patrons.”

Gengel is celebrating the fifth anniversary of the café this February.